New Stations for an Asteroid Tracking System to Better Protect Earth

The NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) has reached a new milestone. It is the first survey capable of searching the entire dark sky every 24 hours for near-Earth objects (NEOs) that could pose a future impact hazard to Earth. Now comprised of four telescopes, ATLAS has expanded its reach to the southern hemisphere from the two existing northern-hemisphere telescopes on Haleakalā and Maunaloa in Hawai'i to include two additional observatories in South Africa and Chile. 

Each of the four ATLAS telescopes can image a swath of sky 100 times larger than the full moon in a single exposure. The completion of the two final telescopes, located at Sutherland Observing Station in South Africa and El Sauce Observatory in Chile, enable ATLAS to observe the night sky when it is daytime in Hawai'i. 

We invited Larry Dennau, ATLAS Co-PI and Senior Software Engineer at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai'i, to this week's SETI Live. Dennau and SETI Institute senior astronomer Franck Marchis will discuss the status of this survey, its expansion and what it means to defend our planet against asteroid impact.

WATCH LIVE ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/S-_CqJ1Jmd4
WATCH LIVE ON FACEBOOK: https://fb.me/e/2gWsG4TUT